West Ham Challenge Arsenal And Newcastle For Talented Forward

The last time we reported on 20 year-old Henry Onyekuru who plays for KAS Eupen of the Belgian First Division, Newcastle were said to be fighting it out with Arsenal for the impressive young forward.

The two other clubs in early June who were said to also be interested in the player were West Ham and Anderlecht.

There’s news today that West Ham are working hard to get a deal struck for the once capped Nigerian international and there’s a source close to the deal who has told the website AllNigeriaSoccer that the Hammers are ready to bid a second time for the forward.

This is what the source had said on AllNigeriaSoccer:

“West Ham are going to put in a second bid for Henry Onyekuru,”

“The first bid was rejected because Eupen believe he is worth more money, but West Ham are very keen on Henry.”

Onyekuru scored a good 24 goals and had 9 assists in 41 appearances for Belgian club KAS Eupen last season and he still has three years left on his current contract

In total he has made 60 appearances with 30 goals and 11 assists in his two seasons at KAS Eupen and that’s a decent return for the youngster.

Earlier this month a source close to Onyekuru revealed that Newcastle were in negotiations with KAS Eupen for the talented youngster and said this in ScoreNigeria:

“Newcastle United have joined in the race to sign Henry,”

“They contacted his agency Mercato on Wednesday (that’s last week) and offered to pay him £36K/week.”

“The talk is on-going between them and the agent.”

And we know that Arsenal have already made a bid for Onyekuru as he had said this earlier this month:

“It’s a good feeling for a club like Arsenal to make a bid for me.”

“This is due to my hard work in training and games. I am waiting and working towards it and we’ll see how it goes after the Nigerian qualifiers.”

The player has talked highly of the Gunners and his boyhood hero Thierry Henry.

But he also wants to play first team football and it seems he will get a much better chance of doing that at Newcastle than at Arsenal.

Onyekuru has already made is clear he could reject offers from some of the big clubs if there’s no chance of him playing in the first team there.

Newcastle and the Gunners were earlier reported willing to pay the KAS Eupen striker’s £6.8M release clause in his contract, so it’s unclear what amount West Ham are bidding for him.

Henry made his International debut for Nigeria in a 3-0 friendly win over Togo on June 1st.

This is why we need a decent throughput of academy players given a chance ,and not just a game every 2 months ,get them in young, settle them into the academy and get proper Barcelona, Ajax type coaches not the ones we have at the moment…..it will be financially worth the outlay and they would be classed as home grown wherever they are from.

G Mate I dont think this lad is joining a club where he goes in as developmental by the sounds of it and not a chance in the world we’d be offering that much for that level of player. I think if he moves he will be playing a fair amount and tbf he might get that here Ive no idea, good scoring record (though am unsure what level it was at he was second division last article on him now hes first?)

I am iffy on the Belgian league though twice in a row we’e bought the best from their and twice they have flopped

On the subject of takeovers. Look at the table from last years Premier League. You could not buy any of the top six for 400 million. You’d pay a lot more for any of them. You probably would not pay that for anyone outside that group bar Newcastle.

Newcastle have it all, income, ground, support, one city club. Top manager.

If you can’t afford 400 Million to buy it outright are they really the mega rich folk being talked about.

My big fear would be a leveraged buy out. They in affect borrow the money to buy. The debt is serviced by the clubs income. All the essentials are there for this. Money is being lent again, club have income and interest rates are low.

This mega rich fella from China. If he is worth 30 Billion he should be able to buy NUFC with his pocket money.

Not sure about this takeover malarkey if I’m honest. Rumours doing the rounds now that the only serious bidders at the table, are in fact a German consortium, and the Asian rumours are a press concoction. It’s probably all bull anyway. I will believe it once the club make an official announcement, otherwise it is to be ignored.

Ffs just sign him already! So sick of waiting for something yet we still have only signed Atsu. This kid is the one with the most potential and very exciting as he loves to run at players. But if we get beat by West Ham for his signature I will pull my hair out. Is Penfold away on holiday or what!??

JP/Phil Lads it may not actually be NUFC fault its very early in the window relax haha if I was a player Id be waiting to see what the best deal I could get was, just be thankful we are after players teams want rather than the normal misfits

I don’t think you can make an offer and get things signed up without every other club knowing about it. As soon as you show your hand your offer is regarded as the first bid in a auction. It’s that simple. Clubs and agents are trying to get the most possible out of it. It’s not rocket science and there is no skill in it particularly.

We need to bear in mind that the north east of England Is not everybody’s ideal place to live. We love it, but we’re biased obviously. Most overseas players want to live and play in London, with the successful North West being their fallback option. Sadly, for whatever reason, we’re further down the pecking order. Rightly or wrongly, that’s how it appears to be. You can’t make players sign for us. Their opinion of the north east might be entirely wrong, but that doesn’t help us. We might have 52k gates and a passionate fan base, but soft shyte’s prefer the cosy warmth of the south east. Too many players have voiced this for it to be ignored. So when it comes to a straight fight, we’re battling uphill from day one. Sometimes nobody is to blame for not getting a signing over the horrible line. We can’t start paying stupid wages or transfer fees just to persuade average players to join a club that their heart isn’t truly committed to. Signing players isn’t as easy as some may think. But importantly, if a player doesn’t want to be here, do we really want him here? Michael Owen is a prime example of such. We paid big money for him and gave him big wages, but let’s be honest, his heart wasn’t in it from day one. Keep our powder dry is my best advice. They might be harder to find, but there are players more interested in football than their social life, who will be happy to play under a legend like Rafa in front of the most passionate fans in the country. If they’re um-ming and ah-ing now, think how they might be in January and February

Bobby – that makes a lot of sense. I supposed if we were offered a job in Italy would we rather work & live in Milan or Rome or some provincial town we’d never heard of? We were also discussing the other day that being newly promoted to the Premiership we’re probably viewed as a bit of a risk as well!

Spot on lads! It’s agonising, but as a club we just have to play our cards right and I am pleased we have a seasoned winner, Rafa, who I trust to get the best players available to us. Build this season and we will be a better placed, more attractive option once established.

The club has a market value of 400 million. That is the debt free valuation and that is what the new owner would get, a debt free club with a market value of 400 million, assuming the price is actually a fair reflection of market value. The debt is Ashley’s, to be paid to him out of the sale price. No one will pay 400 million for a club only worth 260 million, and effectively pay off it’s existing debt gratis.

jimmysmith, what makes you think that a new owner would get a debt free club? The club would be sold with the debt attached. Nobody is going to pay of Ashley’s debt for him – nobody in their right mind anyway.

That’s an interesting take jimmysmith, but my main concern is MA is probably thinking Sunderland got 99M from the TV deal last season, despite finishing rock bottom. Potentially, the club should be worth at least 100M of TV money a season for the foreseeable, meaning, it probably does not make much sense to sell the club right now. I suspect we are stuck with MA until somebody stumps up well and truly over the odds for what the club is worth, in both current face value, and earning potential.

West Ham and their vacant lot football ground are rather like an irritating itch, just scratch it and hope they go away. Are they not capable of making their own transfer decisions. They like Crystal Palace must feel very inadequate in the shadows of Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs.

From previous thread, makes no sense how Mitro can be criticised about his attitude yet Murphy is lauded. Mitro is 22 and rightly so he wants to have a chat with Rafa about his future, if he’s not going to play then send him packing and get money for him.

Tammy wants guarentee of game time before making a decision yet the clamour for him to come on board is still here. Double standards? I think so

On Mitrovic, well give him a proper chance. He’s the no. 9 of a major footballing nation. He can score goals, wants to be here, has enormous potential. If Rafa ain’t sure we should play the loaning game too. A good forward is worth much more than 14 these days, and, we’ve found, this position can’t be experimented be with.

Should he be replaced, it must be a sure-fire CF. And those can break the bank.

Anyway, glad we’ve abandoned the keeper search, or put it on a back burner.

Lerner had to reduce the club debt before he could sell. If Ashley had been paying for advertising instead of funneling revenue out of the club into SD, the debt would be lower and Ashley would see the benefits at point of sale.

It goes to show what a cretin Ashley is, when he would rather take profit out of Newcastle and give a partial amount of it to SD shareholders, when it could 100% be going towards the growth/debt of the club he owns. All set up to leverage SD shareholders no doubt – hence the private jet and what not.

On topic Do we really want to sign another Frenchman who waxes lyrical about arsenal and Thierry Henry etc etc ? How long until the ” beautiful club ” lines would be belted out to lequipe again? No thanks Hopefully this whole saga is just greedy agents inventing interest to generate offers .

The club isn’t a profitable venture under Ashley, he should be selling. The club made £100 million via scrimping and saving for 5 years. The inevitable was on the horizon, and what of that £100 million was not spent on rookie players with profit in mind, was lost via relegation. The only thing Ashley is making out of owning the club is the free advertising. Ashley is way out of his depth, and now that his portfolio is wider than just SD, he would be sensible to get out.

Rafa doesn’t need to meet Tammy again, he’s discussed what he needed to and the lad has to make a decision based on what’s best for him. I was saying that there is no difference in the assuarances Tammy wants to what Mitro wants

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